Birds Have an Alarm Call That Spans The World
- Editor OGN Daily
- Oct 13
- 2 min read
Birds worldwide, even from different continents with no recent common ancestor, share a specific "whining" alarm call to warn each other about brood parasites, such as cuckoos.
This unique, cross-species call provides insight into the potential origins of human language by showing how a vocalization can develop both instinctive and learned components to foster inter-species cooperation against a common threat.
A new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution found that 21 different species of birds - spanning several continents and millions of years of evolution - make nearly identical sounds as a warning against brood parasites. Brood parasites are species that force others to raise their young. In birds, this includes cuckoos, which lay their eggs in other species’ nests. The birds in the nest are left to raise the baby cuckoos, which kill the other, true offspring. The key findings are:
A Universal Alarm: Birds from Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa independently evolved a similar "whining" alarm call to signal the presence of brood parasites.
Cross-Species Understanding: This warning call is understood by other bird species, not just those with a shared evolutionary history.
Cooperative Behaviour: The call triggers a cooperative behaviour, as nearby birds come to attack and drive away the parasite.
Learned and Innate Components: The vocalization has both innate and learned elements, a characteristic that may mirror the earliest stages of human language development, according to Charles Darwin's theories.
Evolutionary Insight: The shared call suggests that communication systems can arise from a need to cooperate against a common, shared threat, similar to the potential evolution of human language from instinctual cries to more complex vocalizations.
This discovery provides a rare glimpse into how communication and cooperation systems can evolve across different species. Charles Darwin suggested in 1871 that spoken language originated with instinctive sounds, like squeals or yells, which humans then learned to imitate and modify for specific purposes. Now, scientists say groups of birds across the world may be proving him right.
